This morning I got angry at the parents of one of my son's classmates.
They accused my son of sexual assault because their 7 year old son said that my 7 year old son grabbed him in the crotch.
This threatened my pride and personal relations.
I thinking more of my son's (and my) reputation than the hurt and confusion of the other kid and parents.
I am indulging in emotional defensiveness and my character defects of pride, self-righteous indignation, and rationalization.

I resolve and with God's help to focus only on my part, to forgive them and to try and be a peacemaker not a fighter.

Tonight at our meeting we read the keys to the kingdom. The story was one of those classic old alcoholic stories. I had misgivings again before the meeting about how appropriate this was to read at a CA meeting. I observed that the story helped me to defeat my obstinacy, to reinforce my understanding of the disease concept, to appreciate the fellowship and to practice the solution.

Here are the ways in which I achieved identification.

The storyteller said that she was a product of an era, of the roaring 20's. I too felt that I was a product of an era, of the 70's.

The 20's were not so different than the 70's as it was the end of the great binge, when drus were available legally as medicines and in the underground sub-culture of artsy, edgy types in trendy places like San Francisco, New Orleans, Galveston, Seattle, New York, Europe, Hong Kong, etc...

She told of trying many ways to control her drinking.
She talked of the disease concept.
She told of her denial and rationalization.
She told of finding the solution and realizing it was the key to much more than just sobriety.